The present invention relates to containers for receiving surgical needles and other small surgical implements. More specifically, it relates to containers which are used to receive these surgical implements during an operation and which provide a systematic means for counting the implements after use and/or as they are removed from the body of the patient. Furthermore, the containers provide a means for disposing of the sharp instruments after the operation is completed.
Surgical practice has long recognized the danger of the possibility that small surgical implements may be left within the body of a patient during surgical procedures. Even the most acute visual inspection of the patient will often not reveal the presence of surgical implements which are left within the patient's body. However, to assure that all the implements are removed, an accounting system is often used. The number of implements available to the surgeon are counted before the operation and again counted as they are removed from the patient's body. In this way, the lack of an implement at the end of the operation indicates that it has been misplaced and possibly inadvertently left within the patient's body, and a visual search of the area including the incision can be performed until the implement is found.
Although the implements may be routinely counted before the operation, during the closure of the incision the count must be made with great rapidity so as to not extend the amount of time that the patient is under surgery. This process of counting the implements can be facilitated by devices which are used to retain the blades, surgical needles, staples, and other small implements as they are used and/or removed from the patient as the case may be. These are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,944,069 to Eldridge; U.S. Pat. No. 4,013,109 to Sandel; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,008,802 to Freitag.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,944,069 to Eldridge discloses a "Receiver for Disposable Surgical Implements" which is provided with a pair of foldably connected pads which each have a penetrable top layer and a penetration-resisting bottom lamination. As each surgical implement is removed from the patient, it is inserted through the top layer and retained for eventual counting. The pads may then be folded together covering the sharp edges and then safely disposed of. U.S. Pat. No. 4,013,109 to Sandel discloses a hinged container for magnetizable surgical needles. As the instruments are removed from the body, they are deposited within the container and held in position there by a magnetic means which completely covers the interior portion of the case. Following surgery, the container may be folded and the instruments safely disposed of. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,008,802 to Freitag discloses a pad of resilient material which is provided with consecutively numbered receiving zones. The needles are inserted through ridges which are upstanding from the upper face of the pad. After the instruments have been accounted for, the pad may be folded and disposed of.
These devices in the prior art are not without some significant shortcomings.
Eldridge discloses the receiver which utilizes a top lamination through which the sharp instruments may be inserted. As the surgery progresses, various implements such as hypodermic needles, surgical needles, and small surgical knives can be inserted through whatever portion of the lamination is not already occupied by previously removed implements. However, since the instruments are apt to be inserted through the lamination in a random position and orientation, the task of accounting for them is not greatly facilitated by this device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,008,802 to Frietag discloses a Surgical Needle Retaining and Inventory Pad and Accounting Method, and utilizes parallel ridges upstanding from the face of the pad with the pad being delineated into a series of zones. The portion of the ridges in each zone is consecutively numbered. As the needles are removed from the body, they are inserted through the ridge in each needle-retaining zone. However, since the needle or other object can only be attached to the ridge by puncturing the material and pushing the instrument through, the instrument itself must be pointed or sharp and also must be held in a proper orientation and manner to accomplish this puncturing operation.
Another device known in the prior art utilizes the physical principle of the attraction between ferrous metals and magnetized surfaces. Such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,658 to Eldridge, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,013,109 to Sandel. Two critical shortcomings of these devices are the facts that only ferrous materials can be retained by the magnetic surfaces and there is a tendency for the ferrous materials to become magnetized themselves and thus be attracted to each other.
A further shortcoming of containers known to the inventor is that although the packages equipped with means to retain the surgical instruments may be marked into consecutively numbered zones, they can sometimes cause confusion in the accounting of the instruments. For example, if a magnetic surface were to be delineated into zones, implements could be placed close to the border between adjacent zones and create confusion in accounting for the instruments. It may appear that a zone is occupied when it actually is not. Alternately, a large instrument may be inadvertently placed straddling the division between two zones and thus may create the appearance that two smaller instruments are placed in the two zones. Of course, such problems can also be present when the instruments are retained by puncturing the laminar or ridged surface since the insertion may take place in one zone and the point protrude from another. This shortcoming is more than just an inconvenience to the surgeon or scrub nurse who counts the implements. It can cause unnecessary delays in the closure of the incision or may cause complications if it leads to an implement being left inside the body of the patient.
Hence, it is an object of this invention to provide a receiver for surgical instruments which facilitates the orderly arrangement of implements as they are removed from the body.
It is another object of this invention to provide a surgical needle container which may retain surgical instruments without the instruments having to pierce the surface by which they are to be retained.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a container for surgical instruments which can retain both ferrous and nonferrous instruments and not affect their magnetic characteristics.
It is another object of this invention to provide a container for surgical needles which will facilitate the placement of a single instrument in a single receiving zone.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the remaining portions of the specification.